


thunder bright

by jaqhad (kyrilu)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Implied Relationships, Introspection, Pre-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23563222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/jaqhad
Summary: Leia has always loved thunderstorms.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26
Collections: May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020





	thunder bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nic/gifts).



Leia has always loved thunderstorms. She used to watch them all the time as a child, sitting by the palace window as the turbulent clouds descended over Appenza Peak. Sound crackling -- light flashing -- rain streaking silver -- all across the moonless sky of Alderaan.

It was different for Luke -- rarer. To moisture farmers on a desert planet, rain is like buried treasure, like salvation. Infinitely valued and precious. 

Years ago, after a training session on Ajan Kloss, it had rained and thundered. Luke had stared at the sky, transfixed -- and he said that he still had nightmares of the emperor’s lightning. She had pulled him into her arms and kissed the crown of his golden hair, as if she could impart her love of thunder and lightning with the touch of her lips. 

She sees him now, ephemeral, in the trees. She wonders if it’s a memory or a vision, and she closes her eyes and focuses, murmuring: “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.” 

She is standing at the mouth of the Resistance cave headquarters. It is raining here; the air sticky and humid; the rain warm and drizzling. 

“I miss you,” she says, as she feels the shape of him by her side like her own phantom limb.

She has not lost a hand like him -- but in some ways, they are--were-- the same person. They both ran away from home at nine standard years old, on the same day for different reasons. They both are allergic to jybukk-fruit, but couldn’t help eating it when they had the chance, despite itchy tongues and watering eyes. They both have dreamt of a woman with warm brown eyes who might be their mother. The princess and the farmboy -- disparate backgrounds, different stories -- yet they begin where the other starts, like a coiled serpent.

He acknowledges her with a nod of his head. “‘I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me,’” he quotes. “You know, Master Yoda didn’t teach me that one.”

“I figured, going by the grammar.” Luke had taught her the chant on this jungle moon, years ago; she had taught it to Rey this morning.

“It was a girl from Jedha. Apparently, she heard it from monks, and she told me to say it and close my eyes. Then she tried to steal my lightsaber from me. Long, long time ago.” He smiles in rueful amusement. “At least she didn’t make me carry her.” 

Leia laughs. “I wish you were here for Rey. I don’t know what I’m doing, Luke. That girl insists on calling me ‘Master,’ even though I’m anything but.” She’s held countless titles in her life -- princess, general, senator -- but never Jedi master. It seems like an unfair claim to something that was and never shall be hers.

“Well,” he says, “I wasn’t the greatest teacher. The kids always did drive me up the wall. Hennix holing up in his room and obsessing over the latest recovered holocron. Tai trying to pull apart Voe and Ben, at each other’s throats again…” 

Ben. Luke shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Leia.” 

“It’s alright,” she says, quietly. “I had a dream that we were together in the Force.” 

It was more like a lingering sensation. She had woke up with tears on her face. Luke in her arms and luminescent. Ben saying, “Mother,” the darkness vanquished from his eyes. Reunion, or the closest thing to peace that the universe can give this family. 

Lightning arcs in the sky. Luke glances up at it, and Leia thinks of Palpatine's broadcast, promising the day of the Sith.

She says, “I wish history wasn’t doomed to repeat.” 

“I wish it wasn’t, either,” he tells her. “But if it repeats, that means that the darkness will fall again. Even if there are people like me who run, who flinch from the dark, there will be those who stand against it. Like you. Like your Resistance.” 

“Yes,” she says. Because she knows this. Even as she lost her fleet, even as her heart ached from the deaths of Han, Amilyn, Ackbar, Gawat, so many others… she had thought: I have been here before and I know loss, howling and terrible. Losing Alderaan, her mother, her father, her home, and still, the Rebel Alliance kept on going, one Death Star destroyed then another. 

They will stand, Rey and Poe and Finn and Rose and Ben -- Ben, she hopes, one day -- and the Force will flare brighter than a thousand suns.

She goes on to say, “You didn’t run, Luke. Not in the end.”

He is silent. His hand reaches for her in the rain, metallic and cold, and she takes it into hers. 

He is gone when the storm stops. Truer than thunder, hope more relentless than rain, she knows in her heart that they’ll be together soon. 


End file.
